


i'll have a blue christmas (but not if i'm with with you)

by ahermioneh



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Ficlet, Fluff, How Louis Goes to Hops' House for Christmas, Louis Misses His Family, M/M, Pre-Slash, this feels more like a snippet from a longer fic that i might write one day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:20:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29582247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahermioneh/pseuds/ahermioneh
Summary: Hops slings an arm over Louis’ shoulders, where he's sat in one of the kitchen chairs. “Hey dude!” He grins down at him, taking advantage of their rare height difference to ruffle Louis’ blond hair with his other hand before grabbing a slice of pie from the counter. “What’re you doing for Christmas?” he asks, through a muffled mouthful of pastry.Louis shrugs, head drooping slightly to focus on his lap rather than on Hops like he usually does when they're together. “I don't know. I’ll probably just stay in dorms."
Relationships: Jonathan "Hops" Hopper/Lukas "Louis" Landmann
Comments: 14
Kudos: 18





	i'll have a blue christmas (but not if i'm with with you)

**Author's Note:**

> this was written originally on tumblr in response to a prompt for @tingo-tango, but this version's slightly slicker and more descriptive now that i'm not writing it at midnight. also, apparently hops and louis don't have a relationship tag??

Hops slings an arm over Louis’ shoulders, where he's sat in one of the kitchen chairs. “Hey dude!” He grins down at him, taking advantage of their rare height difference to ruffle Louis’ blond hair with his other hand before grabbing a slice of pie from the counter. “What’re you doing for Christmas?” he asks, through a muffled mouthful of pastry.

Louis shrugs, head drooping slightly to focus on his lap rather than on Hops like he usually does when they're together. “I don't know. I’ll probably just stay in dorms,” he says, heaving a sigh and leaning back into Hops’ arm. “You know with the game on the 27th, it’s way too much effort to fly all the way to Sweden and back for just a couple of days. However, there’s a Norwegian girl on the same corridor as me, so we figured we’d open our gifts together on Christmas Eve.” He smiles wistfully, even as Hops' narrows his eyes as he tries to work out why they'd be opening gifts the day before Christmas. Louis takes a mouthful of pie, but a he's less enthusiastic than usual. “Try to replicate the holiday feeling somehow, I guess? Even if it won’t quite be the same.” He shifts his weight back and forth and the balls of his feet, rocking slightly against both the back of the chair and Hops' arm. “She’s bringing her girlfriend though, so it’s possible that I might end up third-wheeling. Plus, she probably has a ton of different traditions to me.” Louis’ words start to tumble out of his mouth faster and faster, and Hops _knows_ that Louis’s on the verge of panicking, so he pulls him tighter into the hug, even though the position is getting uncomfortable for him. “You know I've just been missing home so much that I even thought that I might try and track down a Swedish Church in Boston and attend a Lucia service this weekend.” He lets out a quiet but harsh chuckle. "I'm not even _that_ religious, but I just wanna try and emulate home somehow."

A bubble of sadness wells up inside of Hops at Louis’ tone, so he ignores the onslaught of things that Louis’s said that don’t quite make sense to him and focuses on the thing he does understand; Louis is feeling lonely and he's not really looking forward to spending Christmas with Norwegian girl and her girlfriend. “I mean, you can come stay with me if you want?” Hops rubs the back of his neck with his free arm that isn’t supporting Louis. “I’m only in Connecticut, so it’s not that far for us to go and come back in three days?” Hops grins and his voice picks up momentum as he gains a bit more confidence. “And that way you don’t end up third-wheeling with Norwegian Girl _and_ I don’t end up third-wheeling with my sister and her boyfriend." He releases Louis from the hug to let him calm down and consider the proposal; Hops can almost see the gears turning in Louis' mind before they finally stop and the tension seeps out of Louis' body. "See! It’s the perfect solution!”

Louis hesitantly turns to beam at him, smile wavering slightly, but definitely there. “That sounds nice,” he says, voice trailing off, “but would that be okay with your family?" He winces and his hand comes up to tangle his hair in his trademark nervous tick. "You know," he makes an aborted gesture with his hands," wouldn’t it be weird for me to come as just like a friend rather than a significant other?”

Hops grins back at Louis, before pulling up a chair and settling down opposite him. “Nah, they love meeting new people! The more people the better!” In a sudden and fleeting moment of courage, he clasps their hands together, entangling their fingers and tugging Louis closer to him, even as his cheeks heat with the realisation of what he’s done. Hops ignores the sudden tsunami of anxiety that hits him and continues, “Anyway, if you’re that concerned about it being weird, you don’t have to come as _just_ a friend.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!


End file.
